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US government employees to stage hunger strike for Gaza in protest at Biden’s Israel support
Employees from over two dozen US government agencies are planning hunger strike on Thursday to protest against President Joe Biden’s policy toward the war-torn Gaza Strip and Israel’s use of starvation as a “weapon of war” in the besieged territory.
Feds United for Peace, representing employees from twenty-seven US government agencies and departments, said the “day of fasting for Gaza” aims to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Participating federal employees are set to show up to their offices dressed in black or wearing keffiyeh scarves or other symbols of Palestinian solidarity.
A federal employee speaking on behalf of the group cited a UN report that up to two million people in the territory are at risk of famine, saying the Day of Fasting is a response to Israel’s use of “starvation as a weapon of war by intentionally withholding food from entering Gaza.”
Feds United for Peace also organized an office walkout in solidarity with Palestinians earlier in the month, which drew reactions in Washington, with national security officials from both parties criticizing their protests as insubordination.
“They deserve to be fired,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said.
Feds United for Peace representatives say that their goal is to force a conversation in their offices, where many federal employees might support a ceasefire but fear retribution for speaking out, or are afraid to even casually discuss politics because doing so might hamper their efforts to work on policy effectively.
Israel unleashed a war in Gaza on October 7, killing more than 26,600 Palestinians, according to the latest count from the Gaza Health Ministry, with the majority women and children.
It also imposed a total blockade on the territory and restricted food, water, and fuel from entering. The blockade, the civic destruction, and the relentless bombardment of the Strip are pushing Gaza’s essential services and resources to the brink of collapse.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has warned that a dire situation is unfolding in Gaza as half a million individuals are facing the threat of catastrophic hunger.
The people of Gaza account for a staggering 80 percent of the global population facing famine or catastrophic hunger, as reported by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Israeli genocidal war on Gaza also prompted other US government employees to organize against the war under other umbrellas as well. Staffers for Ceasefire, for instance, put on a vigil for Gaza outside the White House in December.
Last week, Staffers for Ceasefire published a statement in opposition to the efforts of senior White House officials to boost morale that has flagged as a result of opposition to the US’s support of Israel.
“While White House chief of staff Jeff Zients throws a morale-booster party for staff tonight, a child in Gaza is killed every 8 minutes,” Staffers for Ceasefire said in a statement. “We are disgusted by this display of complete apathy towards the lives that have been taken in the region over the last three months.”
In early January, a senior political appointee from the education department, Tariq Habash, resigned in protest.
At Biden’s 2024 re-election headquarters, campaigners have also anonymously signed petitions.
More than a thousand officials from the development agency USAid signed a letter in support of a ceasefire.
Government employees say that even though their substantive criticisms of the administration’s policy do not seem to be changing policy, the barrage of dissenting actions have reached the Oval Office.
Van Jackson, a political scientist who worked in the Pentagon during the Barack Obama administration, said the recent protests from US public servants were unprecedented.
“We are in uncharted territory, and no presidential administration in the past 40 years has been denounced by its own staff like this – not collectively, not so publicly, and not with this regularity,” Jackson wrote in his newsletter Un-Diplomatic.
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The religion was completed by choosing a successor after the Prophet peace be up on him
ٱلْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِى وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ ٱلْإِسْلَـٰمَ دِينًۭا
“Today I have perfected your faith for you, completed My favor upon you, and chosen Islam as your way.” (Q, 5:3)
This verse was revealed after the Prophet introduced Ali (peace be upon him) as his successor when he returned from Ghadir Kham, and this was the last obligation that God revealed and no other obligation was revealed after that.
Then, in his explanation, he says: The duties of guardianship were completed because the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, transferred all that God had deposited with him in terms of knowledge to Ali, peace be upon him, and then through him to his descendants, one after the other. So when he put them in their place, he enabled people to refer to them in halal and haram, and he continued this with the rise of one after the other, and in this way he perfected the religion and completed the blessing.
Malaysia hails ICJ’s ruling against Israel’s 'genocide' in Gaza Strip
Malaysia has welcomed a ruling issued by judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague against Israel’s war on Gaza which continued on Saturday.
Malaysia's foreign ministry said it is “vindicated in its call for Israel to be held accountable for the atrocities, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on the Palestinians in the Gaza strip, following the landmark ruling" by the top UN court earlier in the day.
“Malaysia welcomes the decision of the ICJ in the case initiated by South Africa against Israel concerning the application of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” it added.
Malaysia also ordered the Tel Aviv regime to “(i) prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza, in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention; (ii) ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit any acts of genocide; (iii) prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide; (iv) enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life in Gaza; (v) prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of genocide; and (vi) submit a report to the ICJ on all measures taken to give effect to the Order within one month.”
South Africa, one of the outspoken critics of Israel’s ongoing onslaught against Palestinians, filed the lawsuit against Israel at the end of December, noting that Israel’s actions are “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”
The application also said Israeli attacks breach the UN’s Genocide Convention, and urged the court to “order Israel to cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Imam Ali (pbuh) was born Inside the Ka'ba
The story of the birth of Imam 'Ali (a) in the Ka'ba is cited in three ways in different sources:
In the book, Manaqib by Ibn al-Maghazili (d. 483/1090-1), Imam al-Sajjad (a) is quoted as saying that the Prophet (s) saw that Abu Talib was sad and asked him what had saddened him. Abu Talib said that his wife, Fatima bt. Asad, was in labor pains. Abu Talib and Fatima went to the Ka'ba, together with the Prophet (s). Abu Talib made Fatima bt. Asad sit inside the Ka'ba. When 'Ali was born, the Prophet (s) took her to her house.( Ibn Maghāzīlī, Manāqib ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, p. 58-59; Ibn Ḥātam, al-Durr al-naẓīm, p. 225)
According to a hadith cited in Bisharat al-Mustafa by 'Imad al-Din al-Tabari, a Shiite scholar of fifth and sixth/eleventh and twelfth centuries as quoted from Yazid b. Qa'nab, Fatima bt. Asad was near the Ka'ba when she felt labor pains. She asked God to ease the labor for her. At this time, the back part of the Ka'ba (near al-Rukn al-Yamani) was split and Fatima went inside. Then the gap was closed again. Yazid b. Qa'nab is quoted as saying: "whatever we did, we could not open the door of the Ka'ba. Thus, we understood that this was done by God. Fatima bt. Asad left the Ka'ba after four days while she had 'Ali in her arms." (Ṭabarī, Bishārat al-Muṣṭafā, vol. 1, p. 26-27)
According to al-Hasan b. 'Ali al-Tabari (alive in 701/1301-2) in his book, Tuhfat al-abrar, Fatima bt. Asad, Imam 'Ali's mother, had labor pains when she was circumambulating the Ka'ba, and she could not return home. Thus, she turned towards the Ka'ba. The door of the Ka'ba was opened, and she went inside. Then the door was closed and she gave birth to 'Ali inside the Ka'ba. She was inside for three days. (Ṭabarī, Tuḥfat al-abrār, p. 164-165)
Israeli drone strikes kill 7 more Palestinians in West Bank
Israel has killed 7 Palestinians in drone strikes on the occupied West Bank.
Three of the victims were killed in a vehicle near the Balata camp, east of the city of Nablus.
The other four were killed in the camp of Tulkarm, where infrastructure was destroyed.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement it could not “transport four martyrs from inside Tulkarm camp due to the occupation’s bombardment.” It said two of its ambulance workers were wounded by Israeli fire as they tried to reach the victims.
The Israeli military on Wednesday confirmed one of its soldiers was “seriously wounded” in clashes in Tulkarm.
Residents say Israeli troops are going from house to house, sometimes even blowing up doors to enter. In occupied East al-Quds, Israeli troops have set up new checkpoints.
Since the onset of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza in early October, troops and settlers have staged indiscriminate attacks on the Palestinians in the West Bank. The regime has killed 360 people and abducted many more in that region.
The regime has shifted its focus from Gaza’s devastated north to the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis lately.
The total death toll has passed the 24,000 mark. Communications and internet services are completely cut off in wide areas of the Gaza Strip.
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Jordanian field hospital in Khan Yunis severely damaged by Israeli shelling
The Jordanian army’s field hospital in Khan Yunis in the besieged Gaza Strip has been severely damaged by Israeli shelling.
A hospital staff member was injured and would be flown back to Jordan for treatment while a patient was hit with shrapnel, the army said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The hospital incurred heavy damage. The government will take all the measures necessary as a result of the aggression,” the statement said, without elaborating.
The hospital is one of two that Jordan’s armed forces run in Gaza. The facility suffers from acute medical shortage amid Israel’s bombardment.
Medical sources have warned of a deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Roughly 350,000 patients in chronic conditions are without medication in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli regime launched the hostilities in Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the regime’s atrocities against the Palestinians.
Since the start of the aggression, Israel has killed more than 24,000 people, mostly women and children. The Tel Aviv regime has cut off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living in Gaza.
Hospitals in Gaza have also been among the targets of Israeli bombings since that October day.
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LEADERSHIP OF IMAM ALI (PBUH)
إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ(مائده: 55)
Leadership of Imam ALI (pbuh)
Your guardian is only Allah, His Apostle, and the faithful who maintain the prayer and give the zakat while bowing down.
Different exegeses have been proposed for the verse of the velayat. Fariqain commentators have proposed two general views on the exegesis of the verse and Shiite commentators consider the verse as referring to Imam Ali`s (a) wilayat and Imamate. Most Sunnis, however, have considered the wilayat carrying by this verse to be absolute and attributed it to all believers. Since the verse introduces positive cases of wilayat, and the topic is one of the fundamental knowledgeable and religious beliefs, it seems necessary for the verse to be more analyzed to attain a correct comment in the field. The study, analyzing Fariqain commentators` opinions of the verse, seeks to find Quranic meaning of wali and validity of its true case. Finally, Shiite view has been approved; the view upon which wali means guardianship and the true case of those who believe has been known to be Imam Ali (a).
The Birth Anniversary of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (pbuh)
Name: Ali
Title: Asadullah (Lion of God); Haydar (Brave-hearted), Abu Turab (Father of Dust), Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful)
Kunya: Abu al-Hassan; Abu al-Hassanain
Father: Abu Talib (Peace be upon him)
Mother: Fatimah bint Asad
Born: 13th Rajab, 23 BH/595 CE inside the Holy Kabah in Makkah, Hejaz region of the Arabian Peninsula
Died: 21st Ramadan, 40 AH/661 CE, after being struck on the head with a sword by the Kharijite, Ibn Muljam
Age at Martyrdom: 63
Period of Imamate: 29 years
Buried: Najaf, Iraq
The Martyrdom Anniversary of Imam Ali al-Hadi (as)
Name: Ali
Title: al-Hadi; al-Naqi (the Guide; the Pure)
Kunya: Abu al-Hasan (al-Thalith/the 3rd)
Father: Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad (Peace be upon him)
Mother: Summana
Born: 15 of Dhu al-Hijjah marks the birth anniversary of Imam Ali al-Naqi al-Hadi (p), (According to a different narration)in the Holy City of Madinah
Died: 3rd Rajab, 254 AH/868 CE, after being poisoned by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu’tazz
Age at Martyrdom: 42
Period of Imamate: 34 years
Buried: Samarra, Iraq
The analysis of the recent terrorist acts in Gaza
The analysis of Sardar Masjidi, the senior adviser to the commander of the Quds about the recent terrorist acts
The former ambassador of Iran in Iraq said to the Israeli authorities about Israel's crimes: Hamas attacked you in Gaza, why don't you deal with Hamas? Why are you killing and displacing more than 80,000 women and children? This is terrorism and anti-human act or the resistance force and actions of Martyr Soleimani! For 80 years, you have displaced and killed the Palestinian people, openly and officially assassinate their leaders, and do not respect any rights or resolutions, then you say that General Soleimani and the resistance are terrorism! Americans and Zionists are terrorists.
The top adviser to the commander of the Quds Force said: Why Israel does not implement any laws and resolutions of the Security Council and the United Nations! Why don't you deal with Israel!? Do you also have a demand for the protection of human rights? We say that "resistance" hits you hard; Not legal mechanisms and so on. Resistance destroys you with power, Martyr Soleimani strengthened and helped the resistance so that they could defend their rights. The resistance forces are the real guardians of their interests and lands. The resistance of Palestine and Yemen and Hezbollah has been formed to defend its land against the Zionists. It is not like you can bring any harm to the people of the region. If the Palestinians used to fight with stones, today they fight with rockets, now it has no defense power, but one day it will get this weapon. In the past wars, the Israelis won every war and occupied a part, but now for 90 days, with the support of America, they have not been able to do anything and they have been humiliated and are taking their revenge on the innocent civilians.
He emphasized that we have never been afraid of the enemy and we are not afraid, and the Islamic resistance force, God willing, is becoming stronger day by day in the region.
